There are several tweaks to make Linux Mint 19.2 Tina run faster. Some are quite safe, some are risky. Here you'll find only the safe ones.

I don't like risky tweaks, because I think that stability and reliability are much more important than a little speed gain. That's why I've collected a couple of speed tips, that you can apply safely and with which you can make your Mint run considerably faster in many cases.

Those tips are mainly how-to's that can be found elsewhere on this website as well, but scattered all over the site. I've bundled them on this page, that only deals with speed gain.

Note: even though in general you can apply those tips safely, nothing in life is really for free.... You always pay some "price". You disable a particular system service, a couple of nice visual effects or some feature.

Each tweak therefore has its own "price tag". So you should consider before you apply a tip, whether you're willing to pay the "price" for it.

These tips are useful for all desktops of Linux Mint: Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce.

But the tips are especially aimed at Linux Mint with the Xfce desktop, because that particular lightweight desktop is often used on slow older computers that are in dire need of a speed boost.

Improve usage of the system memory (RAM)

1. You can improve the usage of the system memory with the following tweaks:

The absolute number one: decrease swap use

1.1. This is especially noticeable on computers with relatively low RAM memory (2 GB or less): they tend to be far too slow in Mint, and Mint accesses the hard disk too much. Luckily, this can be helped.

Note: does your computer have 8 GB RAM or more? Then you can skip this item, because with so much RAM you probably won't notice any benefits from applying it.

On the hard disk there's a separate file or partition for virtual memory, called the swap. When Mint uses the swap too much, the computer slows down a lot.

Mint's inclination to use the swap, is determined by a value called swappiness. The lower the value, the longer it takes before Mint starts using the swap. On a scale of 0-100, the default value is 60. Which is much too high for normal desktop use, and only fit for servers. Decreasing this value on a desktop computer has no negative side effects whatsoever.

A detailed explanation can be found here (link dead? Then download this pdf file with the same content).

Now the how-to.

a. First check your current swappiness value. Type in the terminal (use copy/paste):

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Press Enter.

The result will probably be 60.

b. To change the swappiness into a more sensible setting, type in the terminal (use copy/paste to avoid typo's):

xed admin:///etc/sysctl.conf

Press Enter. Note that you'll be asked twice for your password.

Now a text file opens. Scroll to the bottom of that text file and add your swappiness parameter to override the default. Copy/paste the following two blue lines into the text file:

# Decrease swap usage to a more reasonable levelvm.swappiness=10

c. Save and close the text file. Then reboot your computer.

d. After the reboot, check the new swappiness setting:

Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Note: if your hard disk is an SSD, your machine will benefit from an even bigger decrease in swappiness. That's because too many write actions, like frequent swapping, reduce the lifespan of an SSD. For an SSD I advise a swappiness of 1. Also check these tips for optimizing an SSD for your Linux.

At least 4 GB memory (RAM): tame the inode cache

1.2. Computers with at least 4 GB of memory (RAM), will probably benefit by shrinking the inode cache less aggressively.

The price that you pay for this, is that certain system items will remain longer in the RAM memory, which decreases the amount of available RAM for general tasks. That's why this tweak is only useful for computers with at least 4 GB of memory (RAM).

Now a text file opens. Scroll to the bottom of that text file and add your cache parameter to override the default, so copy/paste the following two blue lines into that text file:

# Improve cache management
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

d. Save and close the text file. Then reboot your computer.

Only 1 GB RAM or less: enable zRam

1.3. When your computer has very little RAM (1 GB or less), then of course your best choice for speed is a lightweight member of the Mint family, like Mint Xfce. But even then the lack of memory will remain a problem, which will cause your system to slow down from time to time. Even when the swappiness has been decreased to 5.

In that case, you might achieve better results by enabling the experimental kernel module zRam. zRam creates a compressed swap file in your RAM. The compression factor is the gain: with that, you "increase" your RAM.

Note: this hack might make your system unstable! So do not apply it on important computers.

The price you pay for this, is threefold:

- Your processor (CPU) is being taxed more heavily, because it'll have to compress and decompress all the time;

- When the system has filled the RAM swap, it'll start swapping on the hard drive as well. With a heavy burden on the available RAM: the chunk of memory that has been sacrificed for the RAM swap.

- For the time being it's still an experimental module, so this extra layer of complexity might cause instability.

That's why, for the time being, I advise zRam only for computers with very little RAM, and even then only in combination with a swappiness that has been set to 10. Furthermore, zRam isn't suitable yet for production computers, but only for test machines and other, non-essential computers.

You can install it as follows:

Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Reboot your computer.

Check

Now check whether it works, with the following terminal command:

cat /proc/swaps

Press Enter.

If all has gone well, you should receive a report about one or more /dev/zram "partitions". zRam is active then; no need for further action.

How to disable zRam again

1.3.1. When you want to disable and remove zRam again, you can use a special removal command. This is how you do it:

a. Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

b. Reboot your computer.

c. Now check whether the removal has succeeded, with the following terminal command:

cat /proc/swaps

Press Enter.

If all has gone well, you should receive no report anymore about one or more /dev/zram "partitions".

Turn off some startup applications

4. You can speed up Mint somewhat, by disabling a couple of system services that may be superfluous for you. This tweak can be compared to tweaking msconfig in Windows.

These are called startup applications, because they're being launched at startup. Untick a few that you're absolutely sure you don't need and reboot your computer (or log out and then log in again).

Warning: when in the slightest doubt about a particular application: don't do anything, just leave it the way it is!

Mint Xfce: type session in the search box of the menu and select:Session and Startup

Note: only remove the ticks, do not remove the application from the list! Keep the tweak easily reversible (you never know). I repeat: when in any doubt about a particular application: don't do anything, just leave it the way it is.

Turn off visual effects in Cinnamon

b. Make sure this setting is disabled (it's disabled by default, but you may have enabled it yourself sometime):
Menu button - Preferences - System Settings - Applets: scroll to "Show desktop" and click on its gears button - shift the slider to OFF for: Peek at the desktop on hover.

c. Now this:
Menu button - Preferences - System Settings
Section Preferences: General
Disable compositing for full-screen windows: set the slider to ON.

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Turn off visual effects in Xfce

5.3. Even lightweight champion Xfce has some relatively heavy visual effects by default. Disable them like this:

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

6. You can install a lot of add-ons (extensions) in the web browsers Firefox, Chrome and Chromium. Those add-ons can be very useful, but they have a couple of important disadvantages, because they are "applications within an application":

- they slow your browser down, especially if there are a lot of them;

- they can cause malfunctions, both in each other and in the browser itself;

- it has occurred: add-ons with malicious content. Don't trust them blindly.

So don't turn your browser into a Christmas tree: don't adorn it with lots of add-ons. Limit yourself to only a few add-ons, that are really important for you.

Note: watch out for add-ons that claim that they make your browser faster! Often they do more harm than good. Do not install them: even if one or two of them can really make your browser run noticeably faster, they may damage the stability of your browser.

Limiting the disk write actions of Firefox

7. By default, Firefox writes a lot to the hard disk. This reduces its speed. You can limit the disk write actions of Firefox, by putting the Firefox network cache into the RAM and by disabling sessionstore. Like this:

Putting the Firefox network cache into the RAM

7.1. By moving the Firefox network cache from your hard disk to the RAM, you diminish the amount of disk writes. This'll probably make your Firefox noticeably faster. The price you pay is small: it'll only "cost" you 200 MB of your RAM.

Note: don't do this when your computer has less than 2 GB of RAM! Because with very little RAM, even 200 MB can't be missed.

Proceed like this:

a. Type in the URL bar of Firefox:about:config
Press Enter.

b. Now you're being presented with a warning. Ignore it and click on the button "I accept the risk!".

c. Copy/paste the following into the filter bar (search bar):browser.cache.disk.enable
Toggle its value to false by double-clicking it: this will disable "cache to disk" entirely.

d. Now you're going to make sure that "cache to RAM" is enabled. Copy/paste the following into the filter bar (search bar):browser.cache.memory.enable
This should already be set to true; if not, toggle it to true by double-clicking it.

e. Then you're going to determine how much memory can be used as RAM cache. Copy/paste this into the filter bar (search bar):browser.cache.memory.capacity
You'll probably won't find an existing instance. If (as expected) nothing was found, create it like this:

Right-click on the blank area in Firefox, then select New - Integer.
Make this the preference name:browser.cache.memory.capacity
Enter the integer value in KB; I advise 204800 (which equals 200 MB). That's usually more than enough.

f. Close Firefox and launch it again. You're done! Check it like this:

Type in the URL bar:about:cache
Press Enter.

By the way: you'll then also see a mention of an "appcache" which is still present on the disk, but there's no need to move that (much less frequently used) cache to the RAM as well.

Note: This is a user preference. Repeat this hack in each user account.

Disabling sessionstore

7.2. Firefox has a session restore feature, which remembers what pages were opened if Firefox experiences an unexpected shutdown (read: crashes). This feature is neat, but causes many disk writes. Disable it like this:

a. Type in the URL bar of Firefox:

about:config

Press Enter.

b. Now you're being presented with a warning. Ignore it and click on the button "I accept the risk!".

c. Type in the filter bar: sessionstore

c. Double-click on the item called browser.sessionstore.interval. The default interval is 15000, which means 15 seconds. Add three zeros to the existing value, so that it becomes: 15000000 and click the OK button.

d. Close Firefox and launch it again. Now you've practically disabled the session restore feature.

Note (1): Leave the other cache and sessionstore settings as they are: usually, the less invasive a hack is, the better. Because this reduces the risk of unexpected unwanted side effects.

Note (2): This is a user preference. Repeat this hack in each user account.

Firefox: optimize the Places database from time to time

8. In your Firefox profile there's an sqlite database called Places, which after a while starts resembling a swollen Swiss cheese with holes. That might slow your Firefox down.

You can speed your Firefox up a bit, by optimizing (vacuuming) that database: you can namely deflate that swollen Swiss cheese into a compact smaller cheese. As follows:

Type the following in the URL bar of Firefox:

about:support

Press Enter.

Almost at the bottom of the page you get to see then, there's a header called Places Database.
Click there on the button called Verify Integrity.

You're done! Repeat this on a monthly basis, so that your Firefox won't lose speed again because of a swollen database.

Lots of RAM (at least 8 GB): put /tmp on tmpfs

9. Does your system have lots of RAM memory? If it has at least 8 GB, then you can probably speed up your system a bit by placing /tmp on a tmpfs partition. Which means, translated into ordinary language: you bring about that temporary files will not be placed on the hard disk anymore, but on a virtual RAM disk instead.

This is how you do it:

a. Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

b. Then copy/paste this command into the terminal:

sudo systemctl enable tmp.mount

Press Enter.

c. Reboot your computer.

d. After the reboot: check whether it works, with this terminal command:

systemctl status tmp.mount

By default, a tmpfs partition has its maximum size set to half your total RAM. The actual memory consumption depends on how much you fill it up, as a tmpfs partition doesn't consume any memory until it is actually needed.

Note: do not apply this on systems with less RAM than 8 GB! Because then this tweak might not make them faster, but (much) slower.

How to undo tmpfs

9.1. Do you wish to undo tmpfs? Then copy/paste this line into the terminal:

sudo rm -v /etc/systemd/system/tmp.mount

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Afterwards, reboot your computer.

Speed up your wireless internet

10. For some wireless chipsets, a simple tweak is sufficient for increasing the speed and the connection quality of your wireless internet. Namely disabling the power management for the wireless chipset. The price you pay is obviously an increase in power
consumption, although this increase isn't big.

You can do that as follows:

a. First find out if Ubuntu or Mint applies power management to your wireless chipset:

Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Type in the terminal:

iwconfig

Press Enter.

You can then not only see the name for your wireless chipset (for example: wlp2s0), but also whether Power Management is on for it. When it's off, or when no mention is made of Power Management at all, you don't need to do anything.

b. When Power Management is on, proceed as follows.

In order to prevent typo's, copy/paste this line into the terminal (it's one line!):

xed admin:///etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

Press Enter.

Now a text file opens. In that text file, you see the following content:

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 3

Change 3 into 2.

Save the modified file and close it.

c. Reboot your computer.

d. Then check in the terminal, by the command iwconfig, whether Power Management for the wireless chipset is off now.

If so, you're done!

Speed up your Intel wireless chipset

11. If you have a (reasonably) modern wireless chipset from Intel, it'll run on the iwlwifi driver. If so, you might be able to increase its speed noticeably, by turning on Tx AMPDU for it.

The purpose of AMPDU is to improve data transmission by aggregating or grouping together several sets of data. Thus it sharply reduces the amount of transmission overhead.

It used to be "on" by default in the iwlwifi driver. But several years ago, it was turned off because of stability issues on a few wifi chipsets. This problem affects, however, only a minority of chipsets...

For turning it on, proceed like this:

a. First check whether your chipset runs on the iwlwifi driver:

Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Problems? Then undo it like this

12.1. Does removing mlocate cause any problems for you? Then re-install it with the following terminal command:

sudo apt-get install mlocate

All should be then, as it was before.

Turn off the firewall log

13. Have you enabled the firewall (which is recommended)? Then you'll probably never look at its logs, so it won't hurt to turn off all logging by the firewall. That can be done like this:

a. Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Problems? Then turn logging on again like this

13.1. Do you want to enable logging by the firewall again? Then use the following terminal command to turn logging on again with the default amount of activity (low):

sudo ufw logging low

All should be then, as it was before.

Tame the thumbnail feature

14. For each displayed local picture, Mint automatically creates a thumbnail, for easy browsing in the file manager. This might impact performance, when you're dealing with a lot of pictures.... Furthermore, it's a usual suspect for memory leaks. This is how to tame this feature a bit:

a. In Mint Cinnamon's file manager, Nemo, you can reduce the activity of the thumbnailer service as follows:

Note: On very old and slow machines it's better to disable thumbnailing entirely in that dialog window, by setting Show thumbnails: to No (instead of the default setting, which is Local Files Only)

Close Nemo.

b. You can also reduce the maximum size and age of the entire thumbnail cache. For that, proceed like this (only tested in Cinnamon yet):

First install dconf-editor. In the terminal:

sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

Click once on maximum-age and then once on 180, and change it to 30 (for example, if you want 30 days as maximum age).

Then click once on maximum-size and then once on 512, and change it to 50 (for example, if you want 50 MB as maximum size). Repeat this in each user account.

Increase battery life by disabling the Bluetooth driver

15. If you don't ever use Bluetooth (and only then!) you can probably increase the battery life of your laptop a lot by disabling the Bluetooth driver (instead of simply disabling the Bluetooth feature). Like this:

a. Launch a terminal window.(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.

c. Reboot your computer.

How to undo (re-enabling Bluetooth support)

15.1. Do you want to enable Bluetooth again? Then proceed as follows:

a. Use the following terminal command to remove the Bluetooth module from the blacklist:

sudo rm -v /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bluetooth.conf

b. Reboot your computer.

Bluetooth should then be available again.

Clean up your Mint

16. A clean Mint will perform better than a Mint that has become polluted too much by file debris and disordered settings (although pollution is much less of a problem than in Windows). This is how to clean Linux Mint.